Having left at 6am and boarded a coach we arrived in Lumbini 12 hours later, on the border between india and nepal. We had dinner then went to our room to discover a gecko in our room which the hotel staff refused to get rid of so we decided to name him graham and become friends with him in the hope that he would leave us well alone. During the night he disappeared and we didn't see him again. The next morning we left the hotel at 8am to visit the birthplace of buddha. The park where the birthplace is is very peaceful with thousands of prayer flags draped from tree to tree. We set off for the jungle in Chitwan at 10am and arrived at about 3pm, with just enough time to visit the elephant breeding centre. We dumped our stuff in our new room which was in the beautiful Sampana village resort, an ecotourismdevelopment which only employed local people and used local produce, and doesn't use air-con! We took jeeps to the briver which we then crossed on a rickety bamboo bridge and walked to the breeding centre. There were lots of elephants and even a set of twins which were great to see as they would not survive in the wild. A large storm was brewing overhead so we decided to go back to the resort after about 40 minutes and have dinner. The food was amazing and during our stay we both had a great steak each for just 3 pounds! The following morning we were up and ready for 6.30am to take a jeep to go on elephant safari. Helen and I went on an elephant with Alessia and Emily and we rode through the jungle for about 2 minutes when, there in front of us was a wild rhino wallowing in a large pond. Then we saw the cutest little baby pig/boar with stripes and it was scared by the elephant eating grass so started running around. This then frightened the elephant and it started trumpeting, it was rather funny as the pig was tiny! During the safari we saw two more rhino, an eagle, lots of dear and wild boar. We returned to the resort for breakfast and then Helen and I took a mid morning bath with an elephant, we rode her into the river where she laid down and we scrubbed her back. It was amazing to be so close to such a large animal, only downside was that when she had wind it was like being in a jacuzzi so we kept towards her head! For the rest of the afternoon we just sat on the veranda and rested overlooking the river.